LT. COL. GREAVES: Flipping a coin was out of the question of course, and we had no straws or matches. Finally we agreed that since our wives were of similar build and height, each of us would write down his wife's weight on a slip of paper, and that the one of us whose wife weighed the most would do the boarding. We promised to be completely honest about this. I won by a margin of three pounds. SEN. LARCH: I see. And have you apprised your wife of this ... ah ... _modus operandi_? LT. COL. GREAVES: As a matter of fact, I have not. SEN. LARCH: A wise decision indeed. And now, colonel, will you tell us what you did and what you found after boarding Spaceship X? * * * * * LT. COL. GREAVES: As I mentioned earlier, the boat-bay lock had been improperly sealed. Consequently I had no trouble opening it. The inner boat-bay lock proved to have been improperly sealed also, and I concluded from this that the action in both cases had been deliberate--that Spaceship X had not only been abandoned, but that it had been abandoned in such a way as to make future use of it impossible. After entering the ship proper, I found myself in a short passageway. I floated along it, pulling myself forward by means of this protuberance and that and propelling myself, whenever possible, by pushing against the bulkheads with my feet. There was no light save for an occasional ray of starlight seeping through the meteor perforations, and my only effective means of illumination was the electric torch I had brought with me from the _Camaraderie 17_. It left much to be desired. Presently the passageway gave into a large chamber which, judging from its rows of bolted-down benches and its centrally located dais, was a meeting hall of some kind. I did not linger there--Perk and I had estimated that at most I had only fifteen minutes to carry out my explorations--but turned, and proceeded aft, entering another passageway, this one much higher and longer than the first. On either side, compartments were arranged in tiers, and each of the tiers above deck-level was fronted by a catwalk. I entered several of the compartments and looked around, but I saw nothing in each case but a bunk-like bed and a small chest. The beds were bare, and the chests were empty. Continuing on down the passageway, I came to another chamber, this one, judging from its bolted-down tables and benches, and the utensils drifting about, a combination dining room and galley. Again, I did not linger. My primary interest was the power source that had once propelled, illuminated and heated the ship, and had provided it with artificial gravity, and I reasoned that I would find this source in the stern. I was right, but before I located it I came to still another chamber. This one was huge, and it was filled with cages. All of them were empty, but they set me to thinking. For one thing, there were hundreds of them. For another, they ranged in size from tiny to titanic.